1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a cooling device for an electric or electronic apparatus, and more particularly, to a cooling device for cooling inside air heated due to heat generated by an electronic element installed on a printed circuit board (PCB) inside a main body of a computer and the like, without discharging the inside air outside the computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cooling device can be applied to both electric and electronic apparatuses. In particular, the cooling device will be described with reference to a computer.
According to functional improvements of a variety of the electric or electronic apparatus, more electronic elements are positioned inside a main body of the computer. Generally, the electronic elements generate heat and may deteriorate due to the heat. In this regard, there has been a need to cool inside air of the main body of the computer.
In a case of the computer, the heat is considerably generated particularly in a central processing unit (CPU) and the like. In the computer, a heat sink of a material having a high thermal conductivity is mounted on heating elements, such as the CPU and the like, to expand a surface area generating the heat. In addition, a cooling fan is separately mounted on the heat sink.
In this case, however, the heat generated only around the CPU is dispersed by the cooling fan mounted on the heat sink, and heated air still remains inside the main body of the computer. In order to discharge inside air within the main body of the computer to an outside of the computer, a separate cooling fan has to be separately mounted on a surface of a body casing of the main body.
In this case, the heated air is discharged through the separate cooling fan mounted on the surface of the body casing. Then, outside air having a lower temperature than that of the inside air within the main body flows into the main body through a ventilating opening formed on the surface of the body casing. That is, an inside of the main body is cooled by the outside air flowing thereinto.
On the other hand, the electric or electronic apparatus, such as the computer, etc., is generally mounted on or disposed adjacent to a corner or a wall of a room. A variety of electric connections are made on a rear side of the electric or electronic apparatus. Especially, in the case of the computer, it is common that several peripheral devices are electrically connected on the rear side of the main body thereof. Because of these electrical connections, the outside air around the main body is relatively high in temperature compared with an average inside temperature of the room. Further, due to static electricity, dust accumulates on the outside or the inside of the main body.
A conventional cooling method of discharging the heated inside air to the outside of the main body and drawing new outside air into the main body using the cooling fan has the following problems.
First, there is a high possibility in that the heated air discharged out around the main body of the computer flows back into the inside of the main body through the ventilating opening formed on the main body, thereby lowering a cooling efficiency of the main body.
Second, because a plurality of cooling fans are needed to enhance the cooling efficiency, noises are increased.
Third, when surrounding air flows into the main body of the computer, the dust flows thereinto together with the surrounding air, thereby contaminating the inside of the main body and causing a malfunction of the computer.